1980s

Having reached an all-time high in attendance during the bicentennial year of 1976, the decades since have presented challenges for all outdoor history museums as both the pace of work and the range of leisure-time pursuits have increased for Americans. Mystic Seaport continued to refine itself through the 1980s, building new bulkheads along its waterfront, improving visitor access, and expanding its collections, notably with the acquisition of the Rosenfeld Collection of maritime photographs, which numbers close to a million images.